Taken Again
by WoollyOne
Summary: Jesse Everson was turned, and abandoned, at 15 by Eric Northman. She searched for eight years for him, but ended up living with Bill Compton. When Eric takes her from Bill, it just opens up more questions for the young vampire, and leads her to question everything about herself and those she loves. Mostly AU, so go with it. Sorry for the long hiatus, but I'm back now :)
1. Chapter 1

The first thing I hear as I wake up is his deep voice whispering intently in my ear, his lips brushing softly against my skin.

"Wake up, Jesse. We need to go," he murmurs. "They're coming and we need to be ready."

I sit up, holding the sheets to my chest. "I thought it was tomorrow," I say confusedly.

He shakes his head slowly. "They're trying to catch us off guard, but they don't know that everyone's here already." He smirks, pulling on his jacket. "Get dressed and meet us outside, and bring your stuff. The sun's gone down."

He leaves the room and I toss the sheets off myself, standing and stretching my limbs. I open the wardrobe and pull out a pair of baggy, faded jeans and a rugby top, putting them on quickly and brushing my hair, pulling it into a tight ponytail. I lace up my well-worn brown leather hiking boots and sling my backpack over my shoulder, shutting the door behind me as I leave.

"Still wearing borrowed clothes," Bill says incredulously, shaking his head, but still fixing the collar of my shirt.

"What?" I say defensively. "Guys' clothes are comfy. And, technically, they're not borrowed. That would suggest that I can give them back."

"Good form, kid," Jessica says from behind me, descending the staircase.

"Jessica, don't encourage her," Bill chastises. "I don't want you being a bad influence on her."

"I'm older than her," I point out as she drapes her arms around me, hugging me from behind.

"You two are still just as bad as each other," he says jokingly, walking out the front door, leaving it open for us.

"The others are outside," Jessica says, walking to my side and putting an arm around my shoulders. "Look, I know you're scared-"

"I'm not scared," I say simply, looking up at her.

"OK then, I know you're a little nervous, but don't be."

"What if he takes me?"

"Then I'll come find you and we'll talk, maybe hang out, like we do now. Just don't worry about any of that now. You'll be fine, and so will we."

She gently kisses my forehead and we walk outside to the others. Bill is standing in the front, and Jessica takes me to him, squeezing my shoulder before standing on his right, while I'm on his left. He puts his hand on my shoulder and rubs my arm as I look up at him.

"Don't worry, Jesse," he says in a low voice, his eyes scanning the open plain in front of us. "If he takes you, then he takes you. I'll still see you, I swear. I'll do whatever I can to protect you."

His eyes focus on something in the distance and he drops his hand by his side.

"They're coming," he says, loud enough that everyone else can hear. I drop my bag on the ground and stand straight, eyes flicking up to look at the approaching vampires.

I immediately recognise the man in the front, scowling as I remember previous encounters with him. Eric Northman, my creator, turned me nine years ago, but only spent a month with me before he abandoned me without releasing me. To this day, I am still his, and I've spent almost eight years searching for him. I criss-crossed the globe, and found Bill about a year ago, and he let me stay in his house while I searched. He told me he knew Eric, and that I didn't want to see him, but he convinced me to stay in Bon Temps with him. I've lived in his house, mansion really, ever since, and rarely go outside, even at night, preferring to stay out of the way of anyone, and anything that's out there.

As they approach, I sense something strange, and I see Bill's gazing down to me cautiously. I take an experimental sniff, and I what I smell isn't what I expected. It's blood, but not something I've encountered before. It's something strange, not quite human, and even more enticing. Bill places his hand tightly on my shoulder, letting a low growl slip from between his teeth, clearly directed at me.

He may be kind to me, kinder than I deserve, but I have to know my place, and he has to enforce it.

"What is it?" I hiss, never taking my eyes off his.

"The woman next to Eric," he replies, quiet enough that Eric and the others won't hear. My eyes flicker towards her, and she glances at me curiously.

"I see her," I say, looking back to him. "She's human, isn't she?"

"She's part Faery," he explains, looking at her somewhat wistfully.

"You know her?"

"You could say that."

We stand in silence until Eric's party stops about a hundred metres from us, none of them moving, not even the human.

"Eric, old friend," Bill says calmly, taking a step away from our group. Jessica and I follow him closely, but stand a little behind him, flanking him. I throw her a glance, and she gives me a small nod. My mouth sets in a hard line as I turn back to the front.

"Bill, I didn't expect to see you here tonight," Eric replies, his tone friendly. He mimics Bill, stepping away from those behind him, but one of the women, a vampire, not the human, follows him. "Especially not with so many friends."

"Enough with the pleasantries, Eric," Bill says, his face growing dark. "You sprung this on us, why?"

"Because we need you to listen," Eric says angrily. "The werewolves are here to stay, whether you like it or not."

"We don't care if you're Sherriff, Bill," another man says from the front, next to the human. He has long, shaggy hair and is glaring right at Bill. "We're here to stay. You can't banish us because of what we are."

Bill sighs. "I guess we're going to have to come to some sort of agreement."

"Tonight," Eric says.

"Fine. But we do it here, now. With witnesses," Bill says.

The plain is eerily silent as both sides think about their options.

"The werewolves stay," the man with the long hair says.

Bill nods. "You leave Bon Temps at full moon," he says.

"Surely you're meant to be protecting all of this area?" Eric sneers.

"Yes, but Bon Temps remains closest to me, and I will not allow any danger to befall the citizens. You leave at full moon, and you harm none of our citizens or those in this area. Or any citizen of Louisiana, if you can help it."

"Alcide, does that sound fair?" Eric asks, turning back to the long-haired man.

The man joins Eric, standing on the other side to the woman. "So we leave before the change?" he asks, head cocked slightly to one side.

"And return as humans," Bill says, nodding.

"Without harming anybody," Alcide concludes. "I will consult with my pack, and have them know these new boundaries you have set us."

"Thank you, Alcide," Bill says sincerely. "If that is all, we will be leaving now."

Bill, Jessica and I all return to the group, remaining in front as we wait for Eric's departure.

"Actually, Bill, I have one last thing to ask you," he says darkly, taking another step forward. He waves back Alcide and the vampire woman, standing out on his own. He glances at me before looking back at Bill. "The girl on your left. Her name, if you don't mind."

"Her name is Jesse," Bill says simply, though after a noticeable pause.

"She's not yours, is she?" he says, though he looks like he already knows the answer. And he should, if he remembers me.

"No, I have no claim to her," he says, his eyes flicking down to me and back up to Eric.

Eric now looks at me, his gaze boring into me. "Jesse Everson, is that you?" he asks in a low voice.

I raise my head, maybe a little defiantly; I'm not quite sure yet how I want to approach this.

"Jesse, don't you remember me?" he asks, almost innocently.

"Yes," I reply, to both of his questions.

"How long has it been?" he asks, and I don't think he knows, either.

"Nine years," I say softly.

"And how long have you been here? So close to me, yet never making yourself known to any of us." He gestures to those behind him.

I look up at Bill, who nods, placing his hand on my shoulder protectively.

"About a year now," I say, my voice a little louder this time, a little stronger.

"Do you want to come with me? It's been so long, and we do need to see each other every now and again."

"No," I say through gritted teeth, staring at the ground.

"I wasn't offering options," he says, his voice suddenly hard, eyes flashing dangerously. "Jesse, come here."

"No," I whisper at the ground.

"Jesse," he says warningly, mockingly.

"I'm not coming with you," I yell, snapping my head up to look at him.

"Jesse, as your maker-"

"Eric, don't do this to her," Bill says, not yelling, but with his voice loud and intense.

"I command you," he finishes, and I feel the tug at my chest, trying to pull me towards him.

We stand in silence, my chest slowly growing painful, until it's too painful, and I drop to my knees, my bag dropping from my shoulder.

"Jesse, come here," Eric says.

Bill kneels next to me as I scream into the ground, tears of blood trailing down my face, hands twisted in the grass. He places a strong, firm hand on my back, helping me stand, until I'm facing Eric again.

"Jesse, as your maker I command you, come here," Eric yells.

I scream again, the pain doubling me over, dropping me to the ground again. I'm still crying blood as I stand, this time on my own. I snatch my bag off the ground, hoisting it on my shoulder carelessly.

"Bill, I don't want to go," I say through the tears. "I don't want to go with him." The pain is growing more intense the longer I stand here, but I'm determined to say a proper goodbye.

"You have to go," he says, placing a hand on my waist, leaning down towards me. "Go with him, and I'll see you soon, I promise." He places his other hand on my cheek and pulls me close. "Don't hurt the human, please," he begs, glancing over to Eric.

"That's Sookie, isn't it?" I say softly, the knowledge suddenly dawning on me.

"Yes, and I need you to promise me you won't hurt her," he whispers.

"I won't harm her. And I'll try my hardest not to let her come to any harm," I whisper back.

"Thank you," he whispers, smiling down at me. "Go, before he does it again."

He leans down and softly kisses my lips, sighing when he stops. Jessica places her hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze, smiling at me gently.

"Go get 'em, kid," she says.

I nod to both of them before hitching my bag up onto my back and stepping out towards my maker. He smirks as I take the first step, nodding slowly to himself. I continue until I reach the halfway point, stopping to look back and Bill and Jessica. Bill nods, and Jessica smiles at me apologetically. I nod back and turn around, straightening myself up and taking my first step past the imaginary line that divides to the two sides. The first step that takes me closer to Eric than it does to Bill.

Eric smiles, a cold, hard smile, as I take that step, but doesn't move, just watches me. I keep walking until I'm a few metres away from him, eyeing him warily.

"Come closer, Jesse," he says pleasantly, though his eyes are still cold to me.

I take another few steps until I'm standing just in front of him.

"Excellent," he murmurs. He raises his hand, but I don't move. He places it on my cheek and I repress a shudder as his fingers brush my skin. "Nine years, really?"

I wrap my hand around his wrist, pulling it away from my face. "You abandoned me. Don't think you can do this to me."

He wrenches his hand from my grip and hits me, and I hear Bill and Jessica growl in unison. My face stings from the impact of his open hand, but I make no move to attack, or protest. I slowly breathe out, and my gaze drops to the ground. Bill and Jessica still growl, and soon the plain is filled with the growls of those I stood with a minute ago.

"Shut up!" I yell, snapping my head up to look back at them. They immediately fall silent, just like the tears of blood that begin to snake down my cheeks again.

"We will leave you in peace, old friend," Eric says, his voice booming across the plain. "Come, my friends. Let us go our separate ways, for now."

The vampires disperse, leaving just Eric, Sookie, Alcide and I. Alcide and Eric talk softly between themselves, and Sookie and I stand on either side of them. I glance back at Bill's mansion and notice him looking down at us from one of the upstairs windows, and I shake my head at him. I can see Jessica in one of the other windows and look up at her. I lock eyes with her and smile. She smiles back, albeit a little half-heartedly. She turns away from the window, and I turn back to the conversation in front of me. They look like they're nearly done, but then I notice a pair of eyes on me, and I sweep my eyes up to meet Sookie's. She's watching me closely, curiously, her eyes glinting in the moonlight. I nod slightly at her, and she inclines her head to me. Alcide and Eric shake hands and Alcide leaves the three of us on our own. Eric turns to me and just looks at me, eyes scanning my body for a minute until he laughs.

"I'm surprised you survived this long," he remarks.

"Of course you would be," I say indignantly. "You never cared about me, you left me after a month!"

He hits me again, harder this time, but I don't react the way he would expect me to. I say nothing, just drop my head, though my hands ball up into tight fists.

"Your restraint is outstanding," he murmurs, more to himself than anything.

"Eric," Sookie says, grabbing his arm. "Enough; she's only a child."

Eric shrugs off her hand, but seems to listen. "Jesse, we're leaving now. And you're coming with us." His voice is cold, and it's easy to tell he isn't pleased with me.

"And what if I don't want to? You might be my maker, but you're not my father."

"Jesse, as your maker I command you to come with us," he says in a dangerously quiet voice.

He walks away then, and I sigh, following him. Sookie walks behind me, and in such close proximity I notice just how good her blood smells. My hands subconsciously ball up into fists, but I force them open again and resort to holding my breath, something I haven't had to do for quite a while. After a couple of minutes of walking in awkward silence, we reach a car.

"Get in the back," Eric says icily.

He sits in the front passenger seat while Sookie drives, and he jumps out as soon as we arrive at what I'm assuming is her house. He's already inside by the time I'm out of the car, and I can hear his angry voice coming from inside.

"Jesse, inside, now," he bellows, and I shrink away from his words.

I walk around to the front of the house behind Sookie, but scowl as I go to walk up the steps to the front door. Sookie seems to notice and turns around with an apologetic smile.

"Sookie, may I come in?" I ask flatly.

"Of course," she says courteously, a hesitant smile on her face as she holds the door open for me. I stop just short of the doorway, watching her closely.

"You might not want to get that close," I say quietly.

"Oh, sorry," she stammers, letting me close the door myself.

"Don't be. It's in my nature."

I follow her into the living room to find Eric pacing furiously. His head snaps up as soon as I set foot in the room, and he immediately pounces on me, backing me up against the wall.

"Let me get this straight. You've been here for a year."

"Yes," I whisper, suddenly afraid of him.

"Did you know I was here?" he asks. "Did you know I was here?" he yells when I don't answer him.

"Yes," I whisper almost inaudibly.

"Why didn't you come to me?" he hisses.

"Because you're the last person I wanted to see," I say quietly.

This last remark gets to him and he grabs the collar of my shirt and pins me against the wall, my legs dangling uselessly below me. "How dare you," he yells. "I am your maker-"

"Yeah, but did I want this?" I yell back, thrashing against his hold. "Did I want you to turn me into this? You attacked me and did this to me, and then you left me!"

"You brought this onto yourself-"

"Eric, put her down right now," Sookie says almost too calmly. I peer around Eric's shoulder and see her standing behind him, hands on hips and her mouth set in a hard line. Eric looks over his shoulder and sighs, dropping me. My legs give way underneath me for a moment and I fall to my knees, but I stand up quickly, looking at Eric warily.

"I have some business I need to attend to," he says, fingers rubbing the bridge of his nose. He turns to me, glaring at me furiously. "I'm leaving you here with Sookie. She's in charge while I'm gone, so you will do whatever she tells you to. You will not leave this house, you will not hurt her, and you will protect her from harm."

"Of course, Eric," I say curtly, my arms folded over my chest.

"Don't make me say it," he says warningly.

"You don't need to. I have nothing against her," I point out.

He glares at me one last time before stalking out of the room, slamming the front door behind him.

Sookie and I stand in awkward silence for a moment, each of us eyeing off the other, neither of us sure of the other.

"I've got a spare room down the hall," she says finally. "You can keep your stuff in there."

"Thanks," I mumble, following her down the hall.

The room she takes me to is pretty small, with just a bed, a chest of drawers, and a small cupboard, but it's enough. I note the lack of windows and smirk.

"I'll leave you to it," she says, shutting the door behind herself.

I dump my bag in a corner and open the cupboard. There's a pillow and blanket inside and I pull them out, tossing the pillow on the bed and laying the blanket over the mattress. I sit on the edge of the bed and sigh, laying back and resting my head on the pillow. My eyes slide shut and I lay still as the past hour rolls through my head unrelentingly.


	2. Chapter 2

A knock at the door catches my attention, and my eyes snap open, my gaze sliding over to the door. I slowly sit up and run my fingers through my hair. I glance at the clock sitting on top of the chest of drawers and see that it's just after half past three in the morning.

"Jesse, do you want a drink? I've got some of that synthetic stuff if you want some," Sookie says softly from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, sure," I say. "I'll be out in a minute."

I stand and unlace my boots, slipping them off and sitting them at the foot of the bed. I twist the doorknob, noting that it sticks just before it opens, and head out to the lounge room. Sookie's just coming out of the kitchen as I walk in and tosses me an unopened bottle. To humans, it would be blurry and unfocussed, but I can see everything clearly, completely in focus as it spins towards me. The bottle lands in my hand, despite the throw coming towards my knee, and I smile.

"You wanna sit down?" she asks, settling down in an armchair with a glass of wine. She turns on the TV, but leaves the volume low, the screen flickering conspicuously in the background.

I unscrew the lid of the bottle and toss it into the bin by the door, before sitting down on the couch on the other side of the room. I glance around the room as we sit in silence, until I feel her watching me. I glance at her and she looks away quickly.

"You know I'm not going to hurt you, don't you?" I ask, my eyes never wavering.

"I heard what Eric said," she says, bringing her eyes back to meet mine.

"I made more than one promise about your safety," I say softly, looking down at my bottle intently, not wanting my eyes to give away all my secrets.

"Bill?" she asks quietly, her tone a mixture of anger, curiosity, and possibly pride or maybe happiness.

I nod. "He loved you. More than you'll ever know," I whisper, finally looking up at her again.

"I think he loves you, too," she says with a small smile. "The way he held you back there, he did that with me, once. He's a gentleman, and he knows how to treat a woman right."

"He certainly does," I remark, looking into my bottle again.

"Jesse, how old are you?" Sookie asks after a minute.

"I died when I was fifteen," I whisper, not looking at her for fear of unwillingly letting it all out. "That was nine years ago. I'd say it feels like a lifetime ago, but it already is."

"So that makes you twenty-four. That's almost as old as me," she comments. "It must be strange."

"Yeah, it is pretty weird."

"Hey," Sookie says after a few minutes of relative silence, "what were you saying earlier about Eric leaving you? If he left you, surely he can't control you?"

"Oh, you know about that," I say, taking a long drink from my bottle, grimacing at the taste, and placing it carefully on the table in front of me. After almost ten years of human blood, this synthetic stuff's disgusting.

"In case you haven't noticed, I keep some pretty strange company," she says with a smile. "I do know what goes on with you vampires."

"I guess I can't really just give you part of the story, can I?"

"You're catching on," she remarks.

I sigh. I haven't had to tell the story for a while, but I will never forget any tiny detail.

"Eric found me after a friend's party had gotten out of control. Most of the people there were drunk, and I was one of them. I was trying to get home when I ran into him. I was alone on a quiet road, drunk, and dressed like a slut. He grabbed me from behind and dragged me into the bush. I think he just wanted me for my blood. Or to rape me. Probably both. In fact, he probably did. I was so drunk I can't even remember most of it. I don't know why he decided to change me. I'm not special, or remarkable. Why did it have to be me, of all people?" My head is in my hands, trying to block out things I'm forced to see.

"You are special," Sookie says quietly. "I've known you for a couple of hours and I can already tell that there's something in you that's different to the others."

"You're part Faery," I say nonchalantly. "You can read my thoughts."

She shakes her head. "I can't read a vampire's thoughts. That's why I don't mind their company. I can feel sane again."

"So you're saying you prefer the company of an undead bloodsucker to a warm, living human?" I ask amusedly, taking a long drink from my bottle, grimacing at the taste. Unfortunately, Sookie notices.

"Not a fan?" she asks, looking slightly concerned.

I smile to myself. "I've spent eight years drinking from humans. It's not an easy habit to break, but I had my incentives."

"I won't ask," she says, glancing up at the TV. "So what exactly were you doing with Bill?"

"I found him last year while I was looking for Eric. I'd managed to get around the world looking for him, but Bill convinced me he'd probably be around here, and that I could stay with him. It was a lot easier to stay out of the sun that way, too. When I eventually found him, I decided to stay with Bill."

"How did you stay covered before?"

"I'd find an abandoned building and stay there, or else bury myself during the day."

"So why did you stay with Bill?"

"He made me feel like a little kid again. He looked after me and kept me safe. I let him down so many times, just snapping and running away, killing so many people, but I always came back. He was disappointed in me, and angry, but that's why I wanted to stop. I wanted to be perfect for him. He made me happy."

"When was the last time you killed a human?" she asks a little worriedly.

"About two months ago. I'm still young, I can't control myself well. And I'm doomed to be a perpetually teenage girl."

"How did he make you happy?" she asks, a bit of a motherly expression crossing her attractive face.

"I think you can guess how," I reply, maybe with a little shame in my voice. She frowns, but I continue. "He didn't force me into it, and I didn't force him. It just sort of, happened."

"I know teenage urges," she says with a smirk.

"I've had them for almost ten years," I point out with a wry smile. "It's quite an unfortunate age to be stuck at."

"I can imagine," she replies.

We sit and watch TV for a few minutes, but it doesn't interest me. It's showing the news, but it never really interested me. I absentmindedly watch the shadows dancing off Sookie's face until a familiar name has my head snapping up in alarm.

"Hannah Everson has been found dead in her Louisiana home. The twenty-six year old was found to have drowned in her own blood, but the cause of such injuries is, as yet, unknown. Investigators are on the scene trying to piece together what happened, but further details aren't expected to be released until next week at the earliest."

"Jesse, are you alright?" Sookie asks, leaning forward a little.

"H-H-Hannah is-was my sister," I stammer, my tongue fumbling over the words in shock. "I haven't seen her since the night he got me. She was there, and I never got to say goodbye. Not even now."

"Honey, I don't know what to say to you," she says apologetically. "Some of my closest friends have died, but I just don't know what to do for you."

"You don't have to do anything. What's the time?" I say, closing my eyes and running a hand through my hair.

"Just after four in the morning, why?" she asks, eyeing me closely.

"I won't have enough time," I murmur to myself. "Have you got a computer I could use?"

"Yeah, I'll go and bring it out. You want another?" she asks, nodding at my now empty bottle.

"No, I hate the stuff," I say, wrinkling my nose.

She takes my bottle and looks at me sternly. "Just because you're not living with Bill anymore doesn't mean you stop drinking this. I don't want you killing people while you're living under my roof."

"Yes ma'am," I reply respectfully.

"Now, do you want another?"

"No, I'll be fine, thank you."

She disappears around the corner and reappears a minute later with a laptop tucked under her arm. She places it on the table in front of me and eyes me closely as I open it and turn it on. I'm puzzled for a second when I realise it's a Mac, and I don't normally use them, but I manage to find the Wi-Fi tab and choose 'Sookie's wifi'. It flashes a password tab and I spin it around.

"Password?" I ask as innocently as I can manage.

She stands and types it in, raising an eyebrow when she sits back down. "What are you doing, Jesse?"

"Don't worry, I'm not looking at porn or anything like that. It's just something I need to do myself."

"You know I can just look up what you've been doing? I'm not that good with computers, but I can do that."

"Then I can just delete the history. Trust me, it's nothing illegal."

"What is it then?" she asks, leaning forwards.

"Just a little research. Nothing you need to concern yourself with," I say, opening Chrome and typing in the most obvious thing I can think of: Hannah Everson.

It comes up with a few results, and the first one I open is the most helpful. Turns out she ended up a writer, publishing just one book, a children's book. I delve a little deeper and find her address, scribbling it down in a notepad sitting on the table. I write down the name of the book, too, and the name of her husband: Mark Lyall. I can't find anything much about him, but there is one article from a newspaper about his arrest for assault dating back a few years. It makes me a little uneasy, but I can't do anything now, not with sunrise so close.

I rip the page from the notepad and shove it in my pocket, closing Sookie's laptop after deleting the browsing history and the search history from Google. She frowns as I hand it back to her, but shakes her head and takes it back into the other room.

"The sun's rising in a few minutes, I'd get back into your room if I were you," she says as she walks back in. "You can have a shower when you get up if you want to."

"Sure thing. Thanks for the laptop," I call over my shoulder as I traipse back to my room. I shut the door behind myself and lay down on the bed, hoping I can sleep for all or most of the day.

When I wake up, the clock says it's just before nine at night. The sun will be down by now, so I get up and have a quick shower before wandering out into the lounge room. Sookie's not in the room, but I can hear her out in the kitchen, so I head out there. She starts when she hears me, but I'm behind her by then.

"I wasn't aiming to scare you," I point out.

"That's alright, I'm just a little jumpy around strangers," she says, turning back to her cooking.

"Especially those of the vampiric nature," I add.

She laughs, and it's one of the happiest things I've heard in a while. "You've got a good nose," she says. "Does this smell alright?"

I laugh to myself, but do it anyway. I take a sniff and whatever she's cooking smells good, but I can smell her blood through it, and that smells amazing.

"It smells good," I say.

"But?" she says, her eyes scanning my face.

"Your blood smells better," I admit sheepishly.

"Ah, I see," she says, turning back to the pot, but seeming a little confused.

"Human blood, as a rule, smells good. Faery blood, on the other hand, smells divine," I say. "And since you're part Faery, and I've never met a full Faery, your blood is the most amazing thing I've ever smelled. In fact, it's driving me crazy right now."

She smiles, albeit a little confusedly. "I'm not sure if I should consider that a compliment or a threat," she says.

"Not a threat. I couldn't do that to Bill. Eric, maybe, but not Bill," I say shaking my head. "Consider yourself lucky that I've got him."

She looks shocked, but only for a second. "He really cared about you, didn't he?"

"Yeah. I've lived with him for a year, and woken up with him beside me for about eight months."

"You miss him, simple as that," she says, glancing back at me.

"And you didn't even need to read my mind."

She laughs again, shaking her head. "You know, I've got some clothes if you want some," she says. "We're about the same size." She is right, I'm just a little shorter than her.

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks," I say.

"The only thing I can't help you out with is shoes."

She's right again. "Yeah, I've got pretty small feet."

She hands me the spoon. "Make sure this doesn't burn, and I'll be back with some clothes for you."

I stir the pot absentmindedly, looking around the kitchen. It's remarkably unremarkable, but I like it. It's homey. I can hear Sookie's footsteps, and drawers and doors opening and shutting, and her footsteps making their way back to me.

"Some shirts, some pants, and I'm afraid that's about it," she says, handing me the stack.

I hand her the spoon, and she turns back to her cooking. "I've got some stuff back at Bill's," I say. "But I doubt Eric would let me go and get anything."

"You're right there," she says, pulling a bowl from the cupboard. "I could try and talk him round. He might listen to me."

"I know he's not going to let me go alone."

"He's coming back sometime tonight, and he said it would be soon; I'll talk to him then. In the meantime, I'm going to eat, and your drinks are up in the corner cupboard."

I go back to my room and put the clothes Sookie gave me in the little cupboard in the corner of the room, and go back out to the kitchen.

I reach up into the cupboard and pull out a bottle, twisting off the cap and tossing it in the bin. I follow her into the lounge room and sit down where I did last night. I have a drink, draining half the bottle in one go, and sit it down on the table. My head lifts almost automatically as I hear Eric's voice, relatively quietly, outside.

"He's back," I mutter sourly. A few seconds after I say it, he opens the door and strides into the lounge room. The moment he walks into the room I stand and confront him. "I need to go back to Bill's."

He laughs like he can't believe what I've just said. "You're kidding," he says, folding his arms across his chest. "No. I'm not letting you go back there. I got you out of there for a reason, and I'm not going to risk letting you go again."

"I don't have to go on my own," I point out.

"I'm not going with you," he says. "I'm more likely to let you go on your own than going with you."

"I will," Sookie says.

Eric looks at her incredulously, but turns back to me. "And why, exactly, do you need to go back to Bill's?"

"I need clothes. I can't wear the same thing for the rest of my life, or until you release me," I point out.

"Release you?" he says. "Who said I was ever going to release you?"

I take a step back, and Sookie narrows her eyes. "So I'm what? A slave? The little kid that runs around doing your shit for you because I have no choice?" I'm yelling by now, and I can tell he's had enough.

"Sookie, take her to Bill's. Stay with her the entire time, and be as quick as you can," he says. He turns to me and jabs a finger at my chest. "I'm only doing this so you shut up. And yes. I think slave works nicely."

I'm tempted to hit him, but he's stronger than me, and I'm not only doing as he says because I have no choice. I'm doing it because I'm scared of him.


End file.
